Hatred or disapproval are bourgeois responses and are unsuitable attitudes for Marxist-Leninists to hold with regard to religions and religiously minded individuals. Yes, religions can be dangerous, as can science in the wrong hands, or indeed political ideology. I am not condoning thousands of years of Church oppression, violence or murder in the West, (or any religiously motivated tyranny in the rest of the world), but I am acknowledging the fact that historical (cultural) forces manufacture religions and religious followers – and this is not the fault of the individuals concerned.

Marx and Engels developed this thinking during the 19th century, whilst Lenin, Stalin and Mao (amongst others) developed the dialectical thinking that defines Scientific Socialism for the 20th century. Trotskyism, of course, is something of a ‘still birth’ within Revolutionary thinking, a dialectical dead-end that impersonates certain aspects of Marxism, whilst surrendering to every aspect of the capitalist system and making peace with its oppressive nature.

Conformist Revolutionaries are easy to spot. They state (without any reliable evidence) that Mao and Stalin were tyrants and mass killers, and that Hitler was a very maligned and misunderstood world leader (conformist Revolutionaries, whilst having no time for Marx or Lenin, nevertheless are perfectly willing to entertain the thought that Hitler might have been ‘innocent’ of the crimes he committed).